Madison Was Right about Korea - by Jacob G. Hornberger

James Madison, the father of the
Constitution, had a deep insight into the nature of government and
public officials. Here is what he said:

A standing military force, with an
overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The
means of defense against foreign danger have been always the
instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing
maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout
all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending have
enslaved the people.

Here at home, people are revolting.
They’re revolting against out-of-control federal spending and debt,
Federal Reserve-induced inflation and debasement of the dollar, and TSA
body-groping and porn-scanning. Some people are even starting to join
libertarian opposition to the forever occupations of Iraq and
Afghanistan.

So what better thing to do than
excite a war, like in Korea? As Madison pointed out, that’s what the
Roman Empire did when Roman citizens began revolting against the
Empire’s ever-soaring taxes and regulations.

Just think, the new battle cry among
the statists can be, “The Muslims and the terrorists are coming to get
us! The communists too! ”

What better way to get the color
code up to red than to bring the reds into the fear equation? Hey,
don’t forget that that’s how Hitler did it. He blamed the Reichstag
fire on both the terrorists and the communists, and it worked. That’s
how he got the Reichstag to enact the Enabling Act, which suspended
civil liberties, temporarily of course.

Yesterday, the North Korean regime shelled a South Korean island, killing two South Korean soldiers and injuring several more.

Did this act of aggression appear out of nowhere?

Not exactly.

According to the New York Times,
“The attack on Yeonpyeong Island occurred after South Korean forces on
exercises fired test shots into waters near the North Korean coast. ”

You mean to tell me that the South
Korean military fired test shots near the North Korean coast before the
North Koreans shelled that island from which the South Korean shots
were made?

Yep.

According to this news report
posted on Brahmand.com Defence and Aerospace News, the South Korean
test shots into waters near the North Korean coast were part of a
military exercise involving 70,000 South Korean troops designed to
“enhance combat capabilities against North Korea.”

Question: If the Venezuelan armed
forces fired test shots near the U.S. coast in the Gulf of Mexico, what
would be the response of U.S. officials?

Answer: There would be U.S. bombs
falling on Caracas tomorrow, if not sooner. U.S. officials would never
permit such a provocation from the Hugo Chavez regime to go unanswered.
In fact, such test shots would undoubtedly be a dream-come-true for
U.S. officials who have longed for regime change in Venezuela.

Did the U.S. government play a role
in those South Korean military exercises? According to that same news
report, “While it was earlier being planned that the Korean Marine
Corps would stage a joint landing maneouver on the western shores of
the Korean Peninsula with their US counterparts, the JSC official later
said that the US Marines would not be a part of the exercise.”

Why shouldn’t the U.S. government
play a role in the South Korean military exercises? After all, U.S.
soldiers in Korea are the sacrificial trip-wire that guarantees U.S.
entry into another land war in Asia without the bother of congressional
debates and the constitutionally required congressional declaration of
war.

I once read a lesson about scuba
diving that applies in foreign policy. In the ocean, there are lots of
dangerous creatures, such as sharks and moray eels. But by and large,
if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.

Everyone knows that North Korea is
headed by an irrational, weird, dangerous, unpredictable group of
people. So why provoke them? Why not just leave them alone?

Well, I’ll tell you why. It’s the
same reason that North Korea loves these types of crises. The North
Korean regime uses the perpetual threat of a U.S. and South Korean
invasion to keep its citizens distracted away from the nation’s
economic problems and keep them rallying to the government in time of
crisis.

The U.S. government is no different.
It uses the threat of terrorism — a threat that its own foreign policy
engenders — to do the same thing to the American people — quell
discontent over economic matters and cause people to rally to the
government in time of crisis.

That’s what the war on terrorism is
all about. It’s what U.S. foreign policy is all about — produce the
crises, produce the threat of retaliation, and keep everyone stirred up
and fearful, ready to rally to their government in time of crisis.

One thing’s for sure: If the Korean
peninsula erupts in real war, Americans will soon realize why
libertarians, like Madison, Washington, and the other Founding Fathers
opposed entangling alliances and empire. As body bags with American
soldiers begin returning to the United States in droves and people’s
children are drafted into military service for war in Korea and
occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, you can already hear the statists
justifying it all with, “Our Empire is innocent. We’ve been attacked
because of our freedom and values. Madison didn’t know what he was
talking about. The dominoes are falling. The Muslims, terrorists, and
communists are coming to get us. Our loved ones are dying. Rally to our
government. Support whatever it is doing. Woe is us. ”